Round-up: Wolverhampton hold off spirited Stafford fightback
Wolverhampton held on for just a second league victory of the season to move clear of the lower reaches with victory at Stafford.
The visitors were 36-31 Counties Two West winners in an entertaining affair where they held off spirited Stafford to climb above rivals Longton and up to ninth.
Ethan Fereday opened the scoring for Wolverhampton before Jack Butler equalised with a converted try for the Blackberry Lane hosts in the battle of two sides relegated last term.
Visitors Wolverhampton pushed with a quickfire double through Adam Reed, the second of which he kicked for extras.
Stafford's Spencer Latham went over for a fine score just before half hour as Henry Ralphs again converted.
The hosts' Alex Rock flew over to level at 19-19 just at the interval, but three Wolverhampton tries in the first 15 minutes of the second period did the damage as Zayd Aurangzeb, James Duroe and Daniel Heaver crossed the line, with the former converted.
Shell-shocked Stafford had Dan Watts touch down underneath a maul. Kayden Robinson scored a try in the final minutes, with Rock converting, but the hosts were just unable to find an equaliser as they stay fifth, with Wolverhampton up to ninth.
Willenhall top the pile in the division with six wins from six as Nathan Brown scored a hat-trick of tries in a 38-12 with at Burton II. Adam Cooper, Tom Bayley and Lewis Athersmith also went over.
Meanwhile, Stourbridge lost ground in the Regional One Midlands title race as a narrow home defeat had the former leaders leapfrogged into second by Newport (Salop).
The Shropshire visitors prevailed 19-16 on a tight after at Stourton Park.
Newport's narrow success inflicted just a second defeat of the season on Stourbridge, who drop to third with Bournville now narrowly leading the way.
The Birmingham side roared to the summit thanks to a 47-17 victory over Lichfield.
The visitors had few answers to some relentless scoring from Bournville. Lichfield lost ground in the mid-table positions having previously chalked up two consecutive wins and fell to eighth in the 12-strong division.
Dudley Kingswinford lost for a seventh time in eight league games this term with a 35-5 reverse at Gloucestershire outfit Drybrook.
Another tough afternoon for DK saw Ben Taylor with the solitary try.
Walsall enjoyed a handsome 37-8 win on the road at Newark to stay in the top five in Regional Two North.
Captain Adam Nunney opened the scoring with a penalty before converting his own fine individual try. Hansen Christofferson went over just before the break for a second.
Luke Chambers, with two, and Max Hughes added more tries in the second half.
Burntwood are fifth in Counties One West North after a 29-17 success at Newcastle (Staffs).
Second-bottom Kidderminster were defeated again in One West South as Bromyard prevailed 55-10 away winners. Ryan Tiene and Tai Edgar went over for Kiddy.
